MADRID, July 10, 2008 (AFP) - The under-fire president of Barcelona, Joan Laporta, Thursday survived an emergency board meeting called to discuss his future, but eight board members resigned in protest, one of them said.

The eight, including three vice presidents among a total of 17 board members, opposed Laporta continuing in his post, said Albert Vicens.

He said club members are 'deeply unhappy' with Laporta's leadership of Barcelona, which failed to win any silverware in the past two seasons.

Thursday's meeting was called to analyse the results of a weekend confidence vote by club members which Laporta barely survived.

Laporta, who has headed the club since 2003 and was re-elected in 2006, said Tuesday he had no intention of stepping down.

'I do not have any intention of resigning. I believe we have been authorized to continue and that we have to be responsible,' he said.

The 45-year-old got the backing of just 37.75 percent of the 39,389 club members who took part in the vote at the weekend, while 60.60 percent voted against him staying on until his current mandate at the Spanish club ends in June 2010.

To be successful, the motion against Laporta needed to have the support of more than two-thirds of voters.

Laporta will have to appoint replacements for the eight directors who stepped down, since the board must have at least 14 members for its decisions to be valid.

Under his management the club won back-to-back league titles in 2005 and 2006, along with the Champions League in 2006.

But Barca ended the season in third place, meaning they missed out on automatic qualification for the Champions League.

In May, Dutch coach Frank Rijkaard was dismissed after five years in the job and replaced by Spaniard Josep Guardiola.

The eight who resigned Thursday included the first vice president, Albert Vicens, the sports vice president, Marc Ingla, and the vice president in charge of finance, Ferran Soriano.

The five others were Antoni Rovira, Claudia Vives-Fierro, Evarist Murtra, Xavier Cambra and Josep Lluis Vilaseca.